“If I thought my reply were to one who could ever return to the world, this flame would shake no more; but since, if what I hear is true, none ever did return alive from this depth, I answer you without fear of infamy.”— Dante, Inferno

Let us go then, you and I,
When the Scraper’s reared against the sky
Like an author etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain Roman patterned streets,
Those harsh and sharp retreats
Of touring nights in small, Boutique hotels,
And Gainsvort restaurants, with oyster-shells:
Avenues that rush on like a vicious argument
Of most direct intent
To power you to an overwhelming question. . .
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us move and make our visit.

In the firm the women come and go
Talking of Bad Pinnochio.

The yellow cab that rubs its lights upon the window-panes
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the trash that falls from Galleys,
Slipped by the Brown Stone, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a bright Eternal night
Curled once about its Publisher, and fell asleep.

And indeed there is no time
For the yellow cab that streaks along the street,
Flashing its eyes upon the window-panes;
There is no time, there is no time
To prepare a face to meet the falseness that you meet;
There is no time to murder or create,
No time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a novel on your plate;

No time for you, no time for me,
No time yet for a hundred indecisions
And for a hundred visions and revisions
Before the ‘MOVE on’ for some Village tea.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Bad Pinnochio.

And indeed there is no time
To wonder, “Was it fair?” or, “Did I dare?”
No time to turn back and descend the stair,
With some wood chip in the middle of my hair—
[They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”]
My British coat, my collar fraying badly at the chin,
My Ink Pen rich and modest, but asserted by a simple grin—
[They will say: “But how his wooden legs are thin!”]
Did I dare
Disturb the Universe? It was disturbed.

In a minute there is no time
For decisions and revisions which a minute won’t reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all;
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with lost dubloons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a happier room.
So how did I presume?

And I have known the eyes already, known them all—
The eyes that fix you in a nimble phrase,
Like, ‘Burns his bridges’,
or ‘Won’t avert his gaze,’
‘A kinda of own worst author,’
or ‘a heartbreak in a daze.’
And when I’m formulated, sprawling on a pin,
When I’m pinned and wriggling for them all,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?
And how did I presume?

And I have known the arms already, known them all—
Arms that are amuleted, but white and bare
[Yet in the streetlight, downed with hard black hair!]
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that wait upon a proof, or edit out a scrawl.
And should I then presume?
And how should I begin?

Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through grid-lined streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely CEO’s in shirt-sleeves, leaning out windows?

I should have been a pair of printed claws
Tapping across the floors of noisy seas.

And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so fitfully!
Smoothed and edited by fingers,
Asleep . . . tired . . . or it malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.
Should I, after cupcakes and Bleeker ices,
Have had the strength to force the moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my wooden head (now bald) brought in upon a platter,
Perhaps I AM a prophet– and here’s great matter;
Yet I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Bellboy hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.

And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cupcakes, Margheritas, talk of being free,
Among the Galley Proofs, among some lies by you, of me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward another overwhelming question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all.”
If one, settling someone else’s novel by her head,
Should say, “That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all.”

And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the meetings and the swarming streets,
After the novels, after the cupcakes, after the boots that stomp along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is just possible to speak of what I mean!
But as if an emailed madness threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a cover, or throwing off my scrawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.”

Yes! I was Prince Hamlet, and was sad to be;
Not just a branded author, one that once could do
To swell a progress, start a tale or two
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, mad to be of use,
Impolitic, outrageous, but meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.

I grow old . . . I grow old . . .
I shall bear the dustjackets of my novels rolled.

Shall I part my wooden hair behind? Do I dare to grow a peach?
I shan’t wear All-Star Sneekers, or walk on Coney beach.
Yet I have heard bad mermaids singing, each to each.

I hear they will not sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the deep, loveless waters inky black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By press-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till New York voices wake us, and we drown.

PRIVACY POLICY

Privacy Policy
Protecting your personal details on our website
Last updated: 14 December 2010
PhoenixArkPress (Registered number 7460068), whose registered office is at The Forge, Tichborne, Hampshire SO24 0NA, knows that you care how information about you is used and shared and we appreciate your trust in us to do that carefully and sensibly. This notice describes our privacy policy and forms part of our website terms and conditions ("Website Terms").
By accepting our Website Terms or by visiting phoenixarkpress.com ("the Website") you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.
The Website is brought to you by PhoenixArkPress. PhoenixArkPress believes it is important to protect your Personal Data (as defined in the Data Protection Act 1998) and we are committed to giving you a personalised service that meets your needs in a way that also protects your privacy. This policy explains how we may collect Personal Data about you. It also explains some of the security measures we take to protect your Personal Data, and tells you certain things we will do and not do. You should read this policy in conjunction with the Website Terms.
When we first obtain Personal Data from you, or when you take a new service or product from us, we will give you the opportunity to tell us if you do or do not want to receive information from us about other services or products (as applicable). You can normally do this by ticking a box on an application form or contract. You may change your mind at any time by emailing us at the address below.
Some of the Personal Data we hold about you may be 'sensitive personal data' within the meaning of the Data Protection Act 1998, for example, information about your health or ethnic origin.
1. Collecting Information
We may collect Personal Data about you from a number of sources, including the following:
1.1. From you when you agree to take a service or product from us, in which case this may include your contact details, date of birth, how you will pay for the product or service and your bank details.
1.2. From you when you contact us with an enquiry or in response to a communication from us, in which case, this may tell us something about how you use our services.
1.3. From documents that are available to the public, such as the electoral register.
2. Using Your Personal Information
2.1. Personal Data about our customers is an important part of our business and we shall only use your Personal Data for the following purposes and shall not keep such Personal Data longer than is necessary to fulfil these purposes:

2.1.1. To help us to identify you when you contact us.
2.1.2. To help us to identify accounts, services and/or products which you could have from us or selected partners from time to time. We may do this by automatic means using a scoring system, which uses the Personal Data you have provided and/or any information we hold about you and Personal Data from third party agencies (including credit reference agencies).
2.1.3. To help us to administer and to contact you about improved administration of any accounts, services and products we have provided before, do provide now or will or may provide in the future.
2.1.4. To allow us to carry out marketing analysis and customer profiling (including with transactional information), conduct research, including creating statistical and testing information.
2.1.5. To help to prevent and detect fraud or loss.
2.1.6. To allow us to contact you in any way (including mail, email, telephone, visit, text or multimedia messages) about products and services offered by us and selected partners unless you have previously asked us not to do so.
2.1.7. We may monitor and record communications with you (including phone conversations and emails) for quality assurance and compliance.
2.1.8. We may check your details with fraud prevention agencies. If you provide false or inaccurate information and we suspect fraud, we will record this.
2.2. We will not disclose your Personal Data to any third party except in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
2.3. We may allow other people and organisations to use Personal Data we hold about you in the following circumstances:
2.3.1. If we, or substantially all of our assets, are acquired or are in the process of being acquired by a third party, in which case Personal Data held by us, about our customers, will be one of the transferred assets.
2.3.2. If we have been legitimately asked to provide information for legal or regulatory purposes or as part of legal proceedings or prospective legal proceedings.
2.3.3. We employ companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf and we may disclose your Personal Data to these parties for the purposes set out in clause 2.1 or, for example, for fulfilling orders, delivering packages, sending postal mail and email, removing repetitive information from customer lists, analysing data, providing marketing assistance, providing search results and links (including paid listings and links) and providing customer service. Those parties are bound by strict contractual provisions with us and only have access to Personal Data needed to perform their functions, and may not use it for other purposes. Further, they must process the Personal Data in accordance with this Privacy Policy and as permitted by the Data Protection Act 1998. From time to time, these other people and organisations to whom we may pass your Personal Data may be outside the European Economic Area. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your Personal Data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the Data Protection Act 1998.
2.4. Where you give us Personal Data on behalf of someone else, you confirm that you have provided them with the information set out in this Privacy Policy and that they have not objected to such use of their Personal Data.
2.5. In connection with any transaction which we enter into with you:
2.5.1. We, and other companies in our group, may carry out credit and fraud prevention checks with one or more licensed credit reference and fraud prevention agencies. We and they may keep a record of the search. Information held about you by these agencies may be linked to records relating to other people living at the same address with whom you are financially linked. These records will also be taken into account in credit and fraud prevention checks. Information from your application and payment details of your account will be recorded with one or more of these agencies and may be shared with other organisations to help make credit and insurance decisions about you and members of your household with whom you are financially linked and for debt collection and fraud prevention. This includes those who have moved house and who have missed payments.
2.5.2. If you provide false or inaccurate information to us and we suspect fraud, we will record this and may share it with other people and organisations. We, and other credit and insurance organisations, may also use technology to detect and prevent fraud.
2.5.3. If you need details of those credit agencies and fraud prevention agencies from which we obtain and with which we record information about you, please write to our Data Protection Manager at PhoenixArkPress, The Forge, Tichborne, Hampshire SO24 0NA.
3. Protecting Information
We have strict security measures to protect Personal Data.
3.1. We work to protect the security of your information during transmission by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software, which encrypts information you input.
3.2. We reveal only the last five digits of your credit card numbers when confirming an order. Of course, we transmit the entire credit card number to the appropriate credit card company during order processing.
3.3. We maintain physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in connection with the collection, storage and disclosure of personally identifiable customer information. Our security procedures mean that we may occasionally request proof of identity before we disclose personal information to you.
3.4. It is important for you to protect against unauthorised access to your password and to your computer. Be sure to sign off when you finish using a shared computer.
4. The Internet
4.1. If you communicate with us using the Internet, we may occasionally email you about our services and products. When you first give us Personal Data through the Website, we will normally give you the opportunity to say whether you would prefer us not to contact you by email. You can also always send us an email (at the address set out below) at any time if you change your mind.
4.2. Please remember that communications over the Internet, such as emails and webmails (messages sent through a website), are not secure unless they have been encrypted. Your communications may go through a number of countries before they are delivered - this is the nature of the Internet. We cannot accept responsibility for any unauthorised access or loss of Personal Data that is beyond our control.
4.3. We may use 'cookies' to monitor how people use our site. This helps us to understand how our customers and potential customers use our website so we can develop and improve the design, layout and function of the sites. A cookie is a piece of information that is stored on your computer's hard drive through your browser, to recognise your browser and which records how you have used a website. This means that when you go back to that website, it can give you tailored options based on the information it has stored about your last visit. You can normally alter the settings of your browser to prevent it from accepting cookies.
4.4. If you do not want us to use cookies in your browser, you can set your browser to reject cookies or to tell you when a website tries to put a cookie on your computer. However, you may not be able to use some of the products or services on our website without cookies.
5. Turning Off Cookies in Different Browsers
The Help menu on the menu bar of most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie and how to disable cookies altogether. Additionally, you can disable or delete similar data used by browser add-ons, such as Flash cookies, by changing the add-ons settings or visiting the website of its manufacturer.
6. Links
6.1. The Website may include third-party advertising and links to other websites. We do not provide any personally identifiable customer Personal Data to these advertisers or third-party websites.
6.2. These third-party websites and advertisers, or Internet advertising companies working on their behalf, sometimes use technology to send (or "serve") the advertisements that appear on the Website directly to your browser. They automatically receive your IP address when this happens. They may also use cookies, JavaScript, web beacons (also known as action tags or single-pixel gifs), and other technologies to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalise advertising content. We do not have access to or control over cookies or other features that they may use, and the information practices of these advertisers and third-party websites are not covered by this Privacy Policy. Please contact them directly for more information about their privacy practices. In addition, the Network Advertising Initiative offers useful information about Internet advertising companies (also called "ad networks" or "network advertisers"), including information about how to opt-out of their information collection.
6.3. We exclude all liability for loss that you may incur when using these third party websites.
7. Further Information
7.1. If you would like any more information or you have any comments about our Privacy Policy, please either write to us at Data Protection Manager, PhoenixArkPress, The Forge, c/o The White Cottage, Tichborne, Hampshire S)24 0NA, or email us at dclementdavies@aol.com.
7.2. We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time without notice to you, in which case, we will publish the amended version on the Website. You confirm that we shall not be liable to you or any third party for any change to this Privacy Policy from time to time. It is your responsibility to check regularly to determine whether this Privacy Policy has changed.
7.3. You can ask us for a copy of this Privacy Policy and of any amended Privacy Policy by writing to the above address or by emailing us at dclementdavies@aol.com. This Privacy Policy applies to Personal Data we hold about individuals. It does not apply to information we hold about companies and other organisations.
7.4. If you would like access to the Personal Data that we hold about you, you can do this by emailing us at dclementdavies@aol.com or writing to us at the address noted above. There may be a nominal charge of £10 to cover administrative costs.
7.5. We aim to keep the Personal Data we hold about you accurate and up to date. If you tell us that we are holding any inaccurate Personal Data about you, we will delete it or correct it promptly. Please email us at dclementdavies@aol.com or write to us at the address above to update your Personal Data.